# Almon Gunter CEO & President, AGE3, LLC | High-Performance Coach & Author Canonical: https://mornings.network/shows/center-stage/guests/almon-gunter ## Biography Almon Gunter's life could be divided into two dramatic acts, but that would miss the through-line that makes him singular: he has never stopped competing. The arena has changed. The stakes have evolved. But the same ferocity that once made him the 13th fastest man on earth has, over six decades, been redirected into coaching world champions, writing six books, building a 27-year business on pure word of mouth, and launching one of the most quietly remarkable youth development initiatives in the American South. Almon Gunter is a former world-class sprinter, a Nike-sponsored athlete, and a man who chose to leave the sport while the world was still watching — and then built something greater in the years that followed. The early chapters of his story are defined by adversity overcome at a speed that mirrors his times on the track. A sophomore in college, competing in Birmingham, Alabama, Almon tore his hamstring on a ply-board indoor track — the kind of soft wooden surface that gives a little under the power of elite sprinting. Doctors told him his career was over. Two months later, he ran his personal best. That comeback — born out of the particular stubbornness of someone who refuses to accept medical verdicts as biographical facts — carried him forward for years. He qualified for the Olympic trials in 1992 after taking six years off from competitive sprinting. He competed in 15 countries. He ran in seven Olympic stadiums. He reached a peak in Stockholm — one of the fastest venues in the world for track athletes — that most sprinters never touch. At that peak, ranked 13th in the world and sponsored by Nike, he made a decision that confounds people to this day: he stopped. Walking away at the top is the rarest act in competitive sport. Most athletes are forced out by age, injury, or performance decline. Almon chose to leave — to redirect the energy and discipline that had produced world-class times into something he had been thinking about for years. He moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and founded AGE3, LLC, a coaching and training company that has operated for 27 years and grown entirely through word of mouth. No advertising. No paid acquisition. Just results that made athletes, executives, and parents call the next person in their network. The results are extraordinary. Before Derrick Henry became the most decorated running back of his Heisman generation, he trained with Almon at Yulee, Florida, working on the shuttle drills he kept tripping over. Before Carli Lloyd won Olympic gold as one of the most celebrated players in U.S. women's soccer history, Almon worked on her speed. Fortune 500 executives from companies like Thomson Reuters have come through his programs, applying the same principles of physical excellence to corporate leadership. His training philosophy — 'every day is game day' and 1% better every day — is a framework that scales from the track to the boardroom. Almon has written six books and recently launched a course called Sportsmanship: Game of Life, designed to translate the lessons of athletic competition into a practical framework for living. At 3:00 a.m. one night, a conviction seized him that he has described with the clarity of a calling: the root of crime is that people don't love themselves. From that insight was born Operation Love Letter, a youth mentorship and character development initiative focused on self-love as the foundation of social transformation. Almon Gunter appeared on the Center Stage segment of Mornings in the Lab, where host Sophia Grant explored his journey from a torn hamstring to the top of global sprinting — and then to 27 years of quietly extraordinary coaching that helped shape some of the most celebrated athletes in the world. ## Links ## Transcript There's a version of your life where you stay. You keep the title, the money, the thing everyone knows you for. Something in you knows though, staying isn't the same as building. And you've been thinking about that more than you admit. The question isn't whether you could keep going, it's whether keeping going is still growing. Almon was the 13th fastest man in the world, a Nike athlete, competed in 15 countries, then he walked away. Before that, they told him he was done. Torn hamstring at 22. Doctors said he'd never sprint again. Two months later, he ran his personal best. That comeback carried him to two Olympic trials, seven Olympic stadiums, and a peak in Stockholm most sprinters never reach. At the height of it, he chose to stop. He walked away while the world was still watching. He moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and spent 27 years building a business on nothing but word of mouth. Before the Heisman, Derrick Henry kept tripping over his own feet during shuttle runs. Almon trained him at Yulee, Florida. He trained Carli Lloyd's speed before she won Olympic gold. Fortune 500 executives at companies like Thomson Reuters. Then one night at 3:00 a.m., he decided the root of crime is that people don't love themselves. He started Operation Love Letter. He's written six books. He just launched a course called Sportsmanship Game of Life. If you've ever wondered what it looks like when someone stops staying and finally starts building, that's today's conversation. Please welcome Almon Gunter to the big show.